


Sleepless

by Auchen



Category: Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-09
Updated: 2014-04-09
Packaged: 2018-01-18 18:37:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1438615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Auchen/pseuds/Auchen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On a cold night in Svartalfheim, Jane wishes to be alone with her thoughts, but Loki wishes to talk about their encounter a week before.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sleepless

**Author's Note:**

> This was written before The Dark World came out, so it's completely canon divergent.

She could not sleep. Long after the light of the fire had dimmed to a simmer, she lay on the ground, stones pressing against her spine through her bed roll. Jane slipped away as quietly as she could, sparing a glance to the rise and fall of Thor’s form.

Jane walked slowly, so as not to trip over the brush that hunched close to the ground. The company had spent the majority of the night rejoicing at Thor’s recovery after they had spent the previous week believing that he had been captured by Malekith’s army. She should have still felt the cool wash of relief she felt during the celebration, but she could only feel the dim throb of uncertainty. Even after he had been found, she was still not sure that they could triumph over the power of the Dark Elves. Even if they did, what would the cost be? How many cities would be reduced to smoldering ash before their victory?

She soon came to her destination—a cliff wall that stabbed up towards the iron sky, reaching for what it could never grasp. Jane leaned against it, wrapping her arms around herself as a breeze whipped through the landscape.

"Cold, is it not?" A pair of bright eyes blinked into existence next to her.

Jane flinched away and dropped her arms. Loki’s long form shifted in the thick night.

"It is," she said, hoping that he was not in the mood to begin an argument. She glanced again back to the campsite that she had abandoned.

"What brings you here? The memory of our last encounter at this spot?"

Jane swallowed. That encounter had been on the fourth day since Thor’s departure, and Loki had approached her with a thin smile that hid a thousand things. He offered two things—show him what she had done to charm his brother, and perhaps he could wash away (if only for a moment) the fear she felt that Thor could be was dead. All it would be was a kiss, where was the harm in that? he asked. At that moment, she should have darted away, but the consequences of running away might have been worse than complying. And so she had accepted the burn of his lips across hers, a burn that did nothing to quell her anxiety, but only served to pry the crevices of her fears further open.

Jane tried to blame their kiss on a moment of weakness and foolishness, and she filed it away as something that she would never replay in her mind. She should have counted the fact that Loki would not forget, he would dangle it in front of her to see her cringe.

She pulled herself back to the present, and flicked her eyes up to his gaze.

"No."

"What, then? Why do you not sleep?" His form moved closer. He was heat in the darkness of the barren Svartalfheim night, a fire she that feared would burn her if it came too close.

"The ground it’s…uncomfortable," Jane said, realizing how pathetic that sounded the moment it left her mouth.

If she could see his face, she believed he would have smirked.

"I know why you do not sleep." Green eyes darted in the direction of her lips.

A cold fist formed in her stomach as she did not respond for a moment too long. The stones under Loki’s feet crunched as he took another step closer. Too close. But backing away would be admitting the fear she felt. She knew well enough he preyed on any show of weakness.

"You know nothing."

"Don’t I?" The dim light of the moon glinted off of his grin. "I know that the moment you kissed me was the culmination of your feelings of uncertainty and distance that grew during your entire time with Thor. You know that you will never belong here. So you kiss the unworthy brother, whom you know does not belong either."

She was the one to take a step nearer this time. “Don’t dare compare yourself to me.”

"Are you afraid what you might see when you look in the mirror?" His voice was like a hiss in the breeze.

"I’m not afraid."

"You lie," he said. She should have known that he would recognize a lie when he saw it, for he was their master.

Jane took a step back, swallowing at her unspoken admission of her fear.

"Would you rather prove to yourself that your time in my company has not changed you?" he asked, eyes blinking.

"I know what you want to take as proof, and I won’t do it. Not again."

Stones rattled as his pace grew was swifter, and his heat surrounded her, threatening to consume her in its hunger.

"Another lie."


End file.
